1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the art of electrical connector, and more specially to a socket for electrically interconnecting two electrical interfaces, such as an IC package and a printed circuit board.
2. Description of the Prior Art
LGA connecter is widely used for electrically connecting an IC package and a printed circuit board. Since IC package has a plurality of conductive pads for transmitting a plurality of different signals and must be put in the connecter in a determinative direction, to prevent the IC package from mis-mating with offset front to back, the IC package defines gaps on two opposed sides thereof, and correspondingly, an insulative housing of the connector is integrally formed with projections on inner sides of two opposed sidewalls thereof to engage with the gaps on the IC package, so that the IC package can be correctly put in the connector. Related connectors are referred to U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,083,456, 6,908,316 and 6,164,980, these connectors have simple configures, however, the projections are close to passageways for contacts, and may influence an assembly of the contacts.
An improved connector comprises an insulative housing, a plurality of contacts received in the insulative housing and a pair of detachable keys. The insulative housing has a bottom wall with a plurality of passageways therethrough and a plurality of sidewalls extending from peripheral of the bottom wall and defining a receiving space for the IC package together with the bottom wall. The bottom wall is formed with two recesses corresponding to two gaps defined on the IC package, the detachable key inserts into the recess and is retained to the insulative housing after the contacts are inserted into the passageways, so the detachable key will not influence contact assembly. However, the detachable key is unreliably retained to the insulative housing and easily drops from the insulative housing.
Accordingly, a new socket that solves the above problems is desirable.